Who are we?

GANE stands for ‘Growing Audiences North East’ and aims to help cultural organisations and creative individuals across the region increase audiences for their activities.

The project has been funded by the Scottish Arts Council, with support from Aberdeenshire Council and Aberdeen City Council.

Arts development agency HI~Arts has been contracted to work with the cultural sector of the North East to help establish an audience development agency and marketing services for Aberdeen City and the Shire.

Full-time GANE Project Manager Nina Eggens has been appointed early 2010 to take the initiative forwards, either as an independent agency, or embedded within an existing North East cultural organisation. Currently, only Edinburgh and Glasgow have their own dedicated audience development agencies.

The Woodend Barn

Throughout 2009, the GANE project has run audience development training roadshows and offered arts marketing consultancies to a range of key cultural organisations and creative individuals across the North East of Scotland. Details of training and consultancy opportunities, as well as free tips and resources for developing audiences, can be found on this website.

Steering group

A Steering Group comprising a range of the north east’s cultural organisations oversees the project, including Aberdeen Performing Arts, North East Arts Touring (NEAT), Peacock Visual Arts, Puppet Animation Scotland, University of Aberdeen, Banchory’s Woodend Barn, as well as officers from Aberdeenshire Council and Aberdeen City Council.

HI~Arts, the arts development agency for the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, has significant experience in the delivery of training and coordination of marketing activity in the north of Scotland. The organisation’s past projects include an award-winning arts and events website for the Highlands and Islands, the development of the Screen Machine mobile cinema, and the establishment of The Booth online ticketing service.

What others say about GANE:

Councillor Richard Stroud, chairman of the Education, Learning and Leisure Committee at Aberdeenshire Council said:

"Aberdeenshire Council is delighted to be supporting the delivery of the GANE project across the North East. The strength of our partnership with HI~Arts, the Scottish Arts Council, Aberdeen City Council and our independent arts organisations will ensure a high standard of training and events are delivered over the coming months. I look forward to seeing more people, enjoying more arts activity, more often in Aberdeenshire as a result of this initiative."

Councillor Jennifer Stewart, the lead elected member for Culture and Sport in Aberdeen City, said:

"I am delighted to see the launch of this initiative. This is good news. To maintain the cultural buzz in the city and the North East we need to sustain audiences all year round . To develop them further and get more people through the door and be culturally active too. There is a lot out there for people to enjoy".

Iain Munro, Co-Director of Arts at the Scottish Arts Council said:

“The Scottish Arts Council is delighted to support the GANE audience development project which has the potential to increase access to, and participation in, the arts by people across the North East of Scotland Providing opportunities for participation in the arts is a corporate priority for the Scottish Arts Council and the GANE project fits with our aim of developing a Scotland-wide network of regional audience development initiatives”.

1	GANE Steering Group Minutes (9 Dec 2008)	41
2	GANE Steering Group Minutes (17 June 2009)	39
3	GANE Steering Group Minutes (1 April 2009)	38
4	GANE Steering Group Minutes (18 Feb 2009)	38
5	GANE Steering Group Minutes (3 Sep 2008)	38

Audience Development Links

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